The Magna Carta under threat and the hammer .

I’m presently trying to compile a post listing the documents which have contributed towards building the United Kingdom’s system of democracy.

One of those, of course, is the Magna Carta, a copy of which changed hands yesterday in the US for over 10 million pounds.

Its most important principle is encapsulated in Clause XXIX:

XXIX. NO Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right.

A clause which is as relevant and important today as it was over 800 years ago....or at least, it should be.